Does anyone know if it is fairly safe (if there is such a thing in South Africa) to drive the CT - Springbok/Upington route on the N7 at night / very early morning around 2 am ?

We are 2 females wanting to leave CT as early as possible in order to still have some time left once arriving at TR. Or is it not really adviseable to drive in the dark / night time ? I am thinking of trucks, roadworks etc.

Just got back yesterday from a solo trip to KTP - 19 STOP/G's on the way up 2 weeks ago between CT and Upington so on the way back I wrote them all down so here goes - fresh update

They start just past Citrusdal after Piekenierskloof Pass and there are 2 long ones there - past all the little farmstalls ) then its clear till just after Vanrhyns Pass going to Nieuwoudville and to Calvinia - 3 bad ones ( 2 had a board saying 20 min waiting time and 1 was a 10 min waiting time )

From Calvinia they start just outside the town at the petrol station and they end about 50kms past Calvinia - 6 of them .....

And then between Brandvlei and Kenhardt - 8

Going up I left Hout Bay at 5.30am and by the time I got to the Calvinia/Brandvlei/Kenhardt ones they were awful because of Friday afternoon traffic - only got through 2 of the 19 without stopping.... Coming home yesterday I left Keimoes at just after 4.30 am and sailed though all of the C/B/K ones and had a short stop at 2 of the others - it was Sunday morning though. Rose said it took them 3 1/2 hours longer on this past Friday to get up to Upington.......

They are also still working on the bridges at Keimoes so there are 2 short stop/go's there but just to let the traffic over the bridges - going up I hit them at about 5pm on Friday night so had to stop but came through them on Sat afternoon no problem so I think it really depends on what time you hit them .....

The N7 seems like a better bet even though it is about 150km longer and there are all the trucks going to Namibia ....

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Thanks for the detailed update Scouter. Since we were planning to take this route in a few weeks time it is bad news! The question now is what is the situation with the Springbok - Pofadder route? Does anybody know how many STOP/Go's are on that route?

One other option may be to leave the R27 at Nieuwhoudtville, take the R357 to Brandvlei. First 65 km seems to be tar, the last 120 km is gravel but it is 37km shorter than the R27, seems to skip the 6 stops to Brandvlei. Anybody done this route recently?

Thanks a lot lion queen! According to my calculations the Pofadder route is 108km longer than the Brandvlei one FROM LANGEBAAN. 995km vs 1103 km. That is if you skip Clanwilliam, do the Ratelfontein dirt road from Graafwater to Traval - saving 34km.

Given the fact that I then know there are minimal stops it seems to be the better route at this point in time. The forumites on this forum make it an invaluable tool to do one's planning to the KTP. Thank you .

SO and I drove the gravel road from Bitterfontein to Pofadder end June. If you don't mind traveling an odd 290 km without a town and no cell phone reception this is another possibility. At that stage the road has just been graded and it was a real pleasure to drive!!!

Enjoy your trip planning!!!

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The best route is via Springbok. (80km's longer on my map than via Calvinia)The dirt road from Loeriesfontein to Brandvlei is not a good option. (sharp rock that can damage your tires and not many vehicles travel on that road) We have done the R358(dirt road from Bitterfontein to Pofadder) one time this year. It was in a very good condition, it is a very flat road with no passes and is 268km long, but there are no cellphone reception. The distance via the R358 is the same as via Calvinia.Now after the rains I would say go the Springbok way and enjoy the flowers while missing the stop and go's.

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